With the introduction of tickless servers for CS2, Valve have addressed the main concern for a lot of players currently using third-party servers like FACEIT and ESEA. Put simply, should you still play FACEIT or switch back to CS's in-house Matchmaking?
FACEIT is a third-party server host and tournament organizer based in London. It allows Counter Strike: Global Offensive players to play on better servers, with a better anti-cheat system and a pick and ban-phase. With the new Counter Strike 2 being just a few weeks away from release, some players wonder whether FACEIT will still be as popular as it was in CS:GO.
- Here is all we know on Counter-Strike 2 | Release Date, News, Leaks & Beta Details
Since the Limited Test for CS2 has been running for a couple of months and more and more players are getting access to the beta, FACEIT have launched their servers for CS2. But CS2 already comes with a lot of features that previously made FACEIT unique. So is it still worth the money buying a FACEIT subscription for CS2? Let's find out!
FACEIT In CS2: Should You Still Use It?
With the introduction of Premier Matchmaking in CS:GO in December 2020 with Operation Broken Fang, a FACEIT-like ranked mode was brought into the the game. It had a lot of similarities to FACEIT, including pick and ban-phases, no indicated dealt damage after dying and more but shorter timeouts available to players.
With the new “tickless server”-system that Valve brought into CS2, the discussion surrounding 64 and 128 tick seemed to be over. In a YouTube video, Valve explained, how their new system works:
So, is FACEIT still worth it in CS2?
Why You Shouldn't Use FACEIT In CS2
New game, better anti-cheat system, smoother servers, even a new Matchmaking format. Valve made a serious effort to bring the community back together. And the community wants it this way. There are several reasons why FACEIT harms the official CS:GO ranked mode.
If you only played FACEIT and you improved there quite a bit, your official CS:GO rank is probably far below your abilities. There are a lot of people out there on high FACEIT levels being ranked in Gold Nova or Master Guardian, since they don't play official games on a regular basis.
Secondly, there is the so-called “rank decay”. If you don't play ranked CS on official servers for some weeks, you lose your rank. You will only get it back after winning another official match. But, your rank will always be lower than the one you had before. So if you played FACEIT while losing your official rank, you got better but get ranked worse. So you might be playing in an Elo you are way too good for. Basically unintentional smurfing on top of the regular smurfing.
And since valve has made a lot of improvements to matchmaking in CS2, you won't lose as much if you leave FACEIT behind and play on the official servers.
Why You Should Use FACEIT In CS2
Since FACEIT's CS2 servers are live for a couple of days now, the first impressions are available. CS:GO legend Kenny “kennyS” Schrub, who hasn't been the biggest fan of CS2's beta so far, had the following to say about the FACEIT servers in CS2:
Servers provided by @FACEIT already feels different :
— kennyS (@kennyS_) September 7, 2023
- I actually hit a flick that felt like a flick
- Pistols are accurate
- Sprays are possible
A reason for this might be, that the “tickless servers” Valve promised are still 64 tick servers. Meanwhile, FACEIT's servers are still 128 tick servers, as Reddit user u/MmX_A_ found out recently. If you don't know what that means, here is a short and simple explanation: The amount of ticks represents, how often a server will update your in-game actions per second. The higher the tick rate, the smoother the game feels, since there is less input-lag.
The YouTuber 3kliksphilip made a good video on this subject, with further explanations and clips showing the differences between 64 and 128 tick servers.
Another reason why FACEIT will still be a thing in CS2 is its anti-cheat. Yes, Valve announced big upgrades to their VACnet anti-cheat, but FACEIT has proven how good their anti-cheating mechanism works. And since rank-decay will occur in CS2, smurfing will remain a problem in the lower ranks of the game, that's something FACEIT also has a good track record on preventing.
FACEIT In CS2: What Does The Community Think?
Most players seem to want to reunify in Valve's in-house Matchmaking. After all, many who switched to FACEIT or ESEA did so to get features that Valve couldn't deliver at the time but will in CS2. But the 64-tick servers is still a strong argument in favor of using third-party servers.
Valve, for fucks sake, just swap over 128 tick and be done with this. Yes, we understand some players don't have PCs that can take advantage of it. But I find it hard to believe that these players are complaining that their hardware is so bad that they are at a disadvantage. The casual players generally don't care to optimize settings and probably don't even care what their FPS is, much less spends hours in DM/Demo watching/aim_botz/etc. to get better at the game. Don't make this decision to cater to a group of players that don't care one way or the other.
And I couldn't agree more with them. Inclusivity is always a good thing, but times have changed. Having 128 frames per second in CS2 should be something, that most computers will be able to achieve nowadays. Therefore, I think that CS2's servers should run on 128 ticks. Otherwise, the issues of rank-decay, smurfing and a separation of the player base will still occur in CS2. Valve, just update your servers, man.